Bündnispartner, Freunde, Liebe, und die Engländer!
by Blaze Moonlight
Summary: Gilbert Beilschmidt's life at Hetalia Highschool was pretty average. He had his stuffy younger brother, two classmates who could almost keep up with his awesome, and he was even passing his classes. That was before ex-frie-ally Arthur Kirkland came back…
1. Chapter 1

Gilbert Beilschmidt had made it into Junior year without expulsion. That was a surprise, not only to his parents, his brother, his teachers and his friends, but also to him.

He was, people would often mutter, the sort of person that the terms 'dropout' and 'trouble' were coined for. He held the school's record for most detentions, had been suspended twice, and couldn't go more than two days without getting into a fight or being kicked out of a class.

Gilbert Beilschmidt was, however, very bright. And so for all that he skipped school and slept through classes, when the time for report cards came around, his grades were always practically impeccable.

He wasn't going to assembly on that particular Monday. It was the first one in September and he had considerably more awesome things to do than listen to the start of the year announcements. Instead he and his two 'partners in crime', Francis Bonnefoy and Antonio Fernandez Carriedo, were sitting in the car park eating crisps.

It wasn't a particularly sinister activity. Nor was it illegal. But it _was_ still against school rules. Not that anybody cared. The smokers that hung out around there at the same time had heard too much of Gilbert's reputation to consider starting something.

"A new year, a new generation of freshmen to introduce to l'amour…"

Gilbert rolled his eyes. Francis was obsessed with the idea of spreading l'amour, probably due to his French parents. Gilbert personally thought that the blond would be much better off if he worked on spreading something useful like Awesome.

"Don't you think freshmen are a bit i_young/i_ now?" Antonio said, but Francis just snorted.

"Age is no barrier for love! That is why you can still pursue your sophomoric… Italian."

Gilbert snorted. Even Francis, king of compliments, couldn't think of anything nice to say about Antonio's crush, an aggressive Italian boy in the year below who had rejected the Spaniard violently on several occasions. Antonio just had strange taste, especially since apparently the boy's 'much cuter' younger brother was starting at the school this year.

"First period is starting soon. Are we going?"

Gilbert paused, pulling out his timetable from his bag. "Fuck yeah!"

Because apparently, for the first time in history, first thing on a Monday morning could be good. Because he had German with 'Old Fritz', the only teacher in the school who was nearly as Awesome as he was. Not to mention the fact that he'd been speaking German fluently for the same amount of time he'd been speaking English and therefore had no need pay any attention in the lesson. So he tossed the empty crisp packet to the ground and pulled his rucksack onto his shoulders and led the way back over to the main buildings, splitting off from his cohorts as they entered the languages section (for each of the Trio had lazily chosen to study the language they knew best) and wandered over to Old Fritz's classroom.

When the lesson was over, a peaceful hour of doodling on his notebook and dozing lightly, he wandered over to the cafeteria to re-meet his friends. They were, somewhat startlingly, there before him, both sprawled across their usual table and laughing about something. Surprisingly, his brother was with them.

"WEST!" he yelled, enjoying the wince that crossed the younger's face.

"Brudder…"

Ludwig 'West' Beilschmidt was a sophomore and most of the time was unlike Gilbert as it was possible to get without being female. Tall, blond and serious, the younger Beilschmidt was a stickler for rules and viewed authority with the utmost respect. It was often considered miraculous that the two brothers were even capable of tolerating each other, let alone having something that occasionally bordered on friendship.

Gilbert couldn't actually think of anything he wanted to say to his younger sibling, they had spoken only a few hours ago, and so instead decided to punch his brother in the arm. Not _particularly _hard_._

He sat down on his chair just as he saw a red-headed freshman (and near clone of Antonio's crush Romano) come dashing into the room. It was Feliciano, Romano's brother, who he knew from middle school and the occasional spent staking out his house with Antonio.

"Ve~! Antonio! Francis! Ludwig! Guess what?"

Gilbert cleared his throat.

"Hi Gilbert! Guess what?"

"What is it?"

"There's a new student in your year! Have you met him! I have! He's on the bench outside the library! Who do you think will be his new friends? He's come from England!"

Gilbert saw the look on Francis' face change from bored disdain to his 'fresh meat' expression. Not that Francis would admit he had one – he swore it was just 'friendliness.' Gilbert knew, however, that the French teen was definitely interested in any prospects he could find to spread his rather perverted idea of love to and therefore wasn't surprised when Francis responded, "I think we should go and greet this new student."

Gilbert smirked and nodded, his interests in a new student weren't the same as Francis' but it would still be good for the British guy to learn who was boss at Hetalia High.

Gilbert would never, ever, ever confess to the fact that he actually visited the school's library on occasion (even if it was only to use their computers to update his Awesome blog.) However, it also wouldn't do for it to appear as if he did not know his way around every inch of the school (even and most especially those areas he was not permitted to be in), and so he kept his pace evenly between that of Francis and Antonio, hoping that people would interpret it positively.

He did, however, recognize the library building on sight which made it fairly easy to guess that the lone student sitting (not slouching) on the bench in front of it was the new guy. That was the thing, if you switched schools at elementary or middle school level you were deemed cool and interesting and practically everybody would want to be your friend. If you switched in high school, however, the students had already built settled friendships and nobody wanted to know about sad, lonely new kids. Except Feliciano. And Francis - but in a creepy way.

Gilbert already had an opinion on the new guy before they'd gotten within speaking distance. With his ruler-straight posture and his large bag (not even a rucksack and who on earth would need to carry so much stuff around anyway?) this guy was sure to be another Roderich - uptight, stuffy and **boring**_._

"Bon jour mon cher…" Francis announced the moment they were with a reasonable distance.

The teen ignored him completely. With his side on view Gilbert could see his appearance fairly clearly. He was wearing smart clothes (far too smart for school) and his shoes were polished to a shine (Gilbert nearly recoiled from the sheer horror of it all) but, as if to deliberately ruin the prissy image, his blonde hair lay in a manner that looked as though it had never seen a brush.

"Hi new kid!"

And that was Feli, bouncing with excitement.

"Hola." Clearly Antonio still thought he was in class.

The guy still wasn't paying the slightest bit of attention. But Gilbert had a way to change that.

"And the Awesome Me, Gilbert the Awesome."

And that got the guy to turn and look at them. The Awesomeness was just irresistible.

"Arthur Kirkland."

Gilbert's first thought was that _holy hell, he STILL hadn't grown into those eyebrows!_

His second was to faint. Which he didn't, because of his Awesome, but a less awesome person would have done.

Instead he just did a very accurate impression of Ludwig's fish the time he'd taken it out of its bowl for a walk…


	2. Chapter 2

In the defence of his Awesome, it didn't take Gilbert more than a few seconds to recover, even if he did recover by pushing Spain into Feliciano, which caused the little Italian to shriek loudly and create a distraction. He took this as an opportunity to inspect somebody who was suddenly not 'some random new guy' but instead was _Arthur Kirkland._ Gilbert couldn't judge his height exactly while he was sat down but fairly sure that the blond was probably a pretty similar height to him. His eyebrows were still completely out of proportion with his face, his eyes were still green and his hairstyle hadn't changed that much, getting a touch shorter and a tone lighter perhaps. Honestly, if it weren't for the fact that his face-shape was a little more defined in way that looked older he probably would look pretty much the same as he had done when he was eleven. Gilbert snorted at the realization.

Arthur just raised one eyebrow coolly. Like Gilbert's not-gawking was completely unwarranted. So Gilbert stuck his tongue out. Because while he did have five years of history with Arthur, the kind of history one found between elementary school students wasn't the sort that could be handled in a very mature manner.

Because that was what had rendered Arthur's face and name so familiar. Five years of Elementary School together before Arthur had left and Gilbert had been forced to get new…teammates.

"What are you doing back?"

Francis gave a horrified gasp, "Gilbert! We are supposed to be making this charming young man welcome. His reasons for wanting to experience this marvellous establishment are clearly to experience our joy and hospitality!"

Arthur shot Francis an incredulous look. "You associate with this?"

Gilbert shrugged. "What are you doing back here? I figured I was rid of you for good. Did they chuck you out?"

Arthur looked genuinely offended. "The only reason I have for returning to this place is an unfortunate geographical convenience."

God he talked like an old man. Gilbert didn't know what was more worrying, that Arthur wasn't ashamed of talking like that, or that he was fairly sure Arthur had _always_ talked like that.

"So basically you moved house?"

Arthur sighed in a manner which Gilbert might have described as long suffering if it weren't for the fact that they'd only been talking for a minute or so. "If you wish to be simple about it… then yes, I did move."

"Back to your old place?" Gilbert asked. Because _really,_ who moved out of a town only to move right back to it a few year later?

Arthur shrugged, "We're across town from the previous house now, near where you used to live, but yes. I don't pretend to take an interest in the whys and wherefores of it all though."

"Where I still live," Gilbert corrected, "Not all of us went flouncing off y'know."

Arthur looked like he was about to snark something back, (it was strange how easily the memories of his expressions and actions came back to Gilbert) but Francis cut him off.

"What, exactly, is going on here?"

Gilbert looked at Arthur, Arthur shrugged. "Nothing is '_going on'_."

Feliciano pouted, "But… Gilbert is talking to you in a way that is strange for strangers…"

"I've had the… experience… of making Gilbert's acquaintance prior to this meeting," Arthur said stiffly.

Feliciano just looked baffled.

"We used to know each other," Gilbert clarified, "Way back when I was first learning how much everyone wanted to be around the awesome me."

"Rather, I endured his presence for lack of any intellectual company in this backwater place."

Feliciano grinned. "Backwater! That's a nice word for this place. It sounds all magical and pretty like a waterfall or a lake or something."

Nobody corrected Feliciano's error, although Arthur did roll his eyes. Backwater was a pretty good definition of the town – although Gilbert preferred to just say boring. It was the kind of town a person just wanted to get out of. At least Awesome people did.

"So you used to be friends?"

Gilbert winced – buddy-buddy stuff like that was for _girls_. "We used to be _allies."_

Feliciano squealed and muttered something that sounded worryingly like 'So cute!' and France nodded, finally seeming to grasp what he was seeing.

The bell rang then, clear and sharp in their ears.

Arthur picked up his bag and, wordlessly, walked off in the direction of the main block.

Gilbert gaped. How could anybody just walk away from his Awesomeness?


	3. Chapter 3

As a rule, computing classes were one of the two or three classes on his schedule that Gilbert could actually tolerate. As part of a generation that had grown up using the sort of technology that the school thought they needed to be educated on and an avid blogger he found that using such technology in the relatively simple ways the class required came effortlessly to him. Computing was one of the easiest of his collection of easy A's. But this particular lesson he found even more difficult than usual to concentrate. He knew, as much as he was loathe to admit it, that the problem lay with his sudden and highly unexpected encounter with Arthur. It might have been more that five years since they last has any proper contact with each other but it wasn't like he had forgotten his childhood.

He'd known Arthur most of the way through elementary school. Back then Arthur had been wild. Vicious and rude and more than once referred to as uncouth. As he'd grown older he'd discovered about Arthur's parents holding rather demanding jobs and the fact that rather than ignoring or forgetting his manners Arthur had never actually been taught them, but at the time he had just been a six year old looking for somebody who could keep up with his streak for trouble. And when most of their grade had been interested in colouring and learning their shapes it had only been natural that the two boys who were far more interested in fighting and exploring would find each other's company. In a childish way they had gotten on from the beginning, neither of them truly caring much for the other but seeing, even then, the benefits of having somebody to fight on your side. It had most likely been the only time in history when students even attempted to bully people two and three grades above. It was most certainly the only time students had been remotely successful. And it had been good. The odd loyalty that came with kicking around people who were tougher than you and swapping sandwiches (because somehow Arthur _never_ seemed to get anything he liked, which was odd because he wasn't a fussy eater, and Gilbert didn't care much what he was eating as long as it was food) had been fun. Fun enough that when they'd been that little bit older, nine and ten and turning eleven, they'd stayed as something like friends. Finding common interests like sports and then fighting over who was better at them, laughing, and playing and scaring Gilbert's parents lifeless when they climbed up on the roof to drop water bombs on passers by. When, age eleven, they discovered that Arthur's parents wanted to move back to England, although they weren't _friends_, because Gilbert Beilschmidt (and why was Arthur the only person who could pronounce that right?) didn't do something as girly as friendship, it had been rather like losing one all the same.

They'd kept in touch, briefly, through messily written 'letters' and the occasional phone call when they weren't being berated by their parents about the expense, but it hadn't lasted. They had fallen out of touch within a year and Gilbert had started middle school and Arthur had started 'secondary school' and all of what had come before had been pushed aside to make room for new allies and new 'battles' and the old times were forgotten.

This meant that Arthur's return was just a touch on the weird side.

They could hardly go back to what things were like before. They weren't young enough to act that way anymore and they were old enough that it would be strange to try and pretend that five years hadn't passed. But Gilbert could hardly just dismiss the fact that he'd known Arthur - even if they way he dressed made it look like he might have got a stick up the arse in the time since they'd last been in contact.

Gilbert was too Awesome to get hung up over things like that though. He was only thinking about it because he had nothing better to be doing and he thought that it had been a while since Arthur had gotten a turn at being in his Awesome thoughts.

By the time he got to his history class he was sure he would have discovered something so interesting that Arthur would be out of his head completely.

Instead of Gilbert's prediction coming true it seemed to be becoming increasingly obvious that for some reason, be it jealousy of his Awesome or just spite, fate seemed to be conspiring against Gilbert's plan to find something to think about which wasn't Arthur. When Gilbert had walked into his history class the blond was already sat at what, for the last two years, had been_ Gilbert's_ desk. And nobody, not even British ex-allies, stole Gilbert Beilschmidt's seat.

"Move over! Only my awesome self is allowed to sit in that seat."

Arthur _looked _at him and blinked - deadpan. "No."

"The awesome me gave you an order!"

Arthur raised his eyebrows. "I, as a rational and intelligent human being, am telling you to bugger off."

"But that's my seat!" And if he had to behave like a ten year old to get it back then he'd do so.

"I don't see your name on it."

Gilbert was reaching for his blue sharpie to correct that error when the teacher walked in. There was something about Mr Silva that was just about intimidating enough on a Monday morning that even Gilbert didn't want to piss him off – a least for now. Instead, wincing, he slid into the seat next to Arthur, and most decidedly _didn't _notice the victorious smirk that flickered about the corners of Arthur's mouth.

Instead of saying anything to the class (not even taking the register as he preferred to just _look _and _see_ which students were present) Mr Silva placed a pile of textbooks at the front of the room and scrawled 'Page 309 – Discuss' in large letters across the board.

"Is that seriously his lesson plan?" Arthur muttered incredulously. Gilbert laughed. Every now and again he found himself not minding Mr Silva, because as much as the man wasn't much fun on a Monday morning, his regular debate and discussion sessions were often interesting – an interesting chance to slack off.

He grabbed a book as they were passed around the classroom, and turned to Arthur. "Looks like you get the privilege of working with the awesome me!

Arthur pulled a face and flipped the book to the required page. "So what exactly are we covering here?"

"You mean you didn't research the courses before hand to pick which the best ones were?" Gilbert taunted – it was always best to hit swots right were it would hurt, in the academics.

Arthur looked affronted and Gilbert smirked triumphantly. So Arthur _had_ turned into prissy bastard. Not that he had ever doubted that the Awesome him was right all along.

"For your information I signed up for whatever damn courses I wanted to and to hell with what you think!"

He also apparently more than a little defensive and still had a quick temper– enough to attract more than a few strange looks from their classmates.

"And," Arthur added tersely, seeming to regain some composure, "As you are clearly both uncooperative and ignorant I shall simply read it for myself."

And he did. He didn't react like any of Gilbert's other more studious classmates did when they would he would not cooperate with them on assignments and glare expectantly as if expecting him to change his mind. Arthur just pulled the book towards him, flipped back to the beginning of the chapter, and began to read.

But no way was Gilbert allowing himself to be ignored in favour of a book. He'd had enough of that when Arthur had tried walking away from him.

"The awesome me knows way more than that stupid book. We're studying the Napoleonic wars. This part is about why the French got thrashed at Waterloo and it's pretty obvious what the answer is. During the Waterloo Campaign, Napoleon needed time to organize himself and the French. The allies weren't doing so hot because they'd been surprised earlier and all mixed up so that their only chance to stop the French was two pretty small armies in Belgium: a British army commanded by the Duke of Wellington (with some Dutch in it too) and an Awesome Prussian army commanded by Prince Blucher. Napoleon gathered an army and prepared a surprise attack on Wellington and Blucher, hoping to catch them unprepared. His plan nearly worked he crossed the Belgian border before Wellington and Blucher could join forces but then…"

Arthur raised his eyebrows, cutting Gilbert off before he had even really begun to get going with the remark of, "Well if you know the subject so well then you should have any problem actually doing the task and discussing the issues presented by this page."

Gilbert rolled his eyes. "The Awesome Anglo-Prussian alliance and them being better than all French (and the rest of the coalition) and great together was what won the war. The notion that anything over than their Awesomeness had anything to do with it is stupid."

Arthur, possibly feeling a little shown up, snatched the textbook back and continued reading it. "Yes but we're supposed to be…"

"Discussing which political factor was most important in the outcome of the Napoleonic wars."

Arthur opened his mouth and then shut it again at the sight of Gilbert's smirk. "Well as you've been studying this course for longer than I have then I suppose I shall consider that conclusion whilst I read up on other possibilities."

Gilbert rolled his eyes at the blond's persistent awkwardness and yanked the textbook away from Arthur. "Ha! Now you can't."

Arthur smacked him across the face with his notebook and took the textbook back. "Ha."

Gilbert scowled. People were staring at them. If he gave into Arthur now his reputation for Awesome victories would be ruined. He tackled Arthur off of his seat grabbing for the textbook again. Victory was his!

Arthur rolled sideward and away from him, Gilbert (surprised only momentarily by the continued resistance) lunged after him. Arthur grabbed Gilbert's arm and yanked it behind his head. Gilbert ignored the pain grabbed the blond's hair in his other hand, not at all above fighting dirty. Arthur growled and sprung at his throat.

"DETENTION!"

They both came to a halt and fell away from each other, tension palpable, and Gilbert looked over at Mr Silva who was scowling at them both. He then glared diagonally over at Arthur who had moved out his grasp and was glaring right back.

As he picked himself up and took the detention slip (only the first of many) Gilbert had a feeling that this wouldn't be the last time he battled with Arthur. Not when the boy's green eyes were burning above that smirk to let him know that being punished for their fight changed nothing.

**A/N Omg, the response these first two chapters have recieved has been awesome. I never thought I'd get so much interest so fast. A big thank you to everybody who's favorited or alerted and and even bigger one to those who reviewed! I'll do my best not to let you guys down.**


	4. Chapter 4

Considering what he knew of the 'English' (he'd been born in England to English parents but Gilbert knew him from outside of England, where he'd also spent most of his formative years, which rather brought everything into question) boy, both from their personal history and their history lesson, Gilbert thought it was pretty un-Awesome that Arthur had somehow ended up sitting alone during lunch. As much as he was frustrated by Arthur's superior attitude and still a little annoyed from their fight earlier it just didn't seem quite right. He was not the only one to notice.

"It looks like le petit Anglais is having trouble settling in; perhaps we should assist him.…"

Francis smirked suggestively and, without waiting for agreement from either Gilbert (who would not have given it) or Antonio (who didn't even seem to be listening), walked over to the table where the English boy lurked and wrapped his arms around Arthur from behind.

Arthur promptly jerked his elbows backward and sent Francis sprawling across the floor.

Gilbert smirked. Clearly Arthur still had something of his eleven year old self left in him. It was always funny watching other people getting one-upped, even if he wasn't entirely sure if he was supposed to be cheering for his ally or his ex-ally. But regardless, Francis was not one to be dissuaded.

"Mon cher! You act in mistake. I am Francis Bonnefoy! The man of whom you've been undoubtedly dreaming off-"

Arthur twisted slightly, punched him in the stomach, and continued reading the thick black book that was open on the table. Francis gasped – staggering backwards. It could have been dramatics, but then again, Gilbert knew first hand that Arthur had a respectable strength to his punches, a short temper which it wasn't particularly unsurprising he'd clung onto and he also seemed to remember Arthur having a general grudge against the French.

Several people were now looking over at Arthur and Francis with curiosity but Francis just grinned, straightening back up, and waved them off.

"Do not be alarmed my beautiful classmates for my stunning facial features are still intact!"

Laughter broke out at Francis' rather absurd statement and people relaxed back to normal as the French boy returned to their regular table, leaving Arthur to return to his solitude and his book.

"He's is a…challenging one. You say you have a history with him Gilbert?"

Gilbert nodded, secretly thinking that if Francis found anybody who didn't give into him immediately a challenge then the French teen mightn't be such a skilled romantic as he liked to claim – hard work was necessary in that sort of thing, even Gilbert knew. "We went to school together way back in elementary, but he moved away and so I moved onto awesomer things."

"So you cannot help me charm him?" Francis sighed, "Oh but I cannot have a caterpillar faced Englishman ruin my reputation for charm. I shall find a way."

Gilbert frowned a little. It was quite obvious that he was taking a jab Arthur's eyebrows which was rather unfairly mean, although prominent they weren't _caterpillars, _a little shocking at first, but although they couldn't be said to suite him they did draw attention to his eyes.

"He's not as cute as Lovi."

Antonio was ignored. That, Gilbert pondered, happened a lot – especially when he was making random statements about Lovino 'Romano' Vargas. He couldn't always remember why the Spanish boy was even a part of their group – he contributed only around one eightieth of the time. Not that Gilbert really cared. He was awesome enough to pull off hanging out with even the most un-awesome of allies and, really, Antonio could be awesome sometimes (at least when there was no possible way in which anything could possibly be related to Lovino – the Italian cause Antonio to transform into a bumbling, grinning buffoon) – Gilbert just had better things to do than keep track.

He glanced over at Arthur, just to be nosey, but the blond was still reading his book. Gilbert turned back to Francis, and then glanced back over at Arthur. He had a sudden illogical urge to drag the blond over to his table and behave in ways he thought he'd outgrown after ten years old.

Arthur might have been able to kick Francis' ass, but Gilbert was going to kick _Arthur's_ ass if the blond didn't get out of his brain soon.

Because of this, when he spotted Arthur in his _maths_ class that afternoon Gilbert was beginning to think that his situation was getting silly. He wanted to ignore Arthur. He wasn't nostalgic and he took no interest in some ex-frie-ally. Fortunately this time he wasn't sat particularly near the blond but despite that, every time he tried to daydream or just stare into space, he kept finding both his mind and thoughts drawn to the Englishman. To say the least, it was infuriating. If Arthur had been moderately cool like Francis or Antonio or even cute like Feliciano he might have been willing to endure the thoughts but, as it was Arthur who was wearing a sweater vest, a tie (to _school _of all places!) and a scowl, he did not want to endure them.

The problem was that his most prominent instincts were contradicting each other. One half of him wanted to do the obvious and just carry on with his life like Arthur had stayed in England, but another part of him was nosey and wanted to know what exactly the boy who had once been his most trusted ally had been over the last five years and why exactly he'd come back _now_.

By the time his 45 minutes into the lesson Gilbert had come to a conclusion: he would not be satisfied until his curiosity was sated so he would just have to find out what he wanted to know.

Yes. That was all he had to do. Ludwig would probably have a fancy phrase like 'immersion therapy' or 'acceptance' or some other rubbish but either way getting what he wanted from Arthur was obviously the fastest fix to the situation. If he had any luck he might have his next class with the blond and be able to catch him after school.

**_A/N - Last of the currently pre-written chapters. There probably aren't going to be any updates for the next two weeks because I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be able to get a computer (let alone internet) while I'm on holiday.  
_****Thanks for your awesome reviews and if anybody wants to help with this story I could really do with some better ideas than my own for the sort of classes the characters might take.**


	5. Chapter 5

Although luck did not yet seem to be willing to side with Gilbert Beilschmidt it did seem to be willing to cut him some slack. Putting Arthur in his fifth period science class would have made life far too easy for him but fate did have the grace to put the English teen only across the hall, so provided Gilbert could keep his head down and his mouth shut and get out of class on time he would be able to corner Arthur before he managed to leave the school building.

Keeping out of trouble had never been Gilbert's forte, especially when he shared a class with somebody worth talking too like Francis (who seemed to have lost interest in Arthur as a topic of conversation for the time being - which was a relief as his chosen topic of conversation (how biology ought to include more sex ed) served as a good distraction from Gilbert's thoughts of the British boy), but he was also undeniably bull-headed and so there were a few tense moments where he found himself biting his tongue to hold back a cheeky remark, in the end though he managed to pass the hour without any major incident.

Silently vowing to avenge himself by causing obscene amounts of trouble in any future science lessons he deigned to attend, Gilbert escaped the room in perfect synchronisation with the ringing of the bell and eyed the corridor for the distinctive combination of Arthur's overly-smart clothes and prominent eyebrows.

After waving Francis away and several minutes of frustration as students came streaming out of the doors of every class except the one he was watching he realised the he had probably wasted his efforts to get out on time as, even is he had been _mildly_ disruptive, he would have been out by now anyway.

He was just about to leave because _really_ he didn't _need_ to be hanging around and waiting for _Arthur_ when the door swung open and the final classroom was emptied of students. Arthur happened to one of the last out, something Gilbert couldn't help thinking of as a deliberate act of spite from the blond (despite the irrationality of it), and looked startled to see Gilbert lurking in the corridor.

Gilbert opened his mouth, hesitated for a moment to try and think of something sensible to say and then gave up and just said whatever wanted to come out. This, you may or may not have the experience of knowing, is not always the best way to hold a conversation but if you do know you won't be at all surprised to know that Arthur was somewhat baffled by the stream of nonsense which spewed from Gilbert's mouth.

"I'm sorry, pardon?"

Gilbert rolled his eyes. "What are you? Slow or something? Do. You. Want. To. Go. To. The. Park?"

"No. You definitely said something about pancakes, awesome and a bomb."

Gilbert paused, the realised that Arthur had been correct and he given out far more information than he'd intended. Arthur only needed to come to the park and catch up on what had happened in the years they had missed, there was no need for Gilbert to tell him his life goals.

"Forget that," Gilbert said, setting off down the corridor. As he opened the door he glanced back to Arthur. "Well, come on!"

For a moment Arthur looked like he was going to ignore the order but the he rolled his eyes, hefted his satchel more firmly onto his shoulder and, too dignified to run, walked briskly until he's caught Gilbert up.

The park was only about five minutes walk from the school but that was three minutes too long for them to hold off their conversation.

"So did your parents really just move you all the way back here just because of their jobs? That's a bit crap."

Arthur shrugged. "My other school was better and I definitely preferred England to here but it's not like I care all that much either way."

Gilbert, in something that could have been a remarkable display of tact but was more likely coincidence, made his next question a fairly safe one.

"What about your brothers?"

Arthur pulled a face. "Donald and Alwyn? They stayed back out there and are a stupid as ever."

Gilbert smirked. Arthur's elder brothers were by no means stupid but he wasn't surprised to hear them being described as such – Arthur was virtually incapable of spending time with his brothers without arguing.

"What about the other one? The little one?"

"Peter? Even more annoying than before. Fortunately I'll have left school before he starts. And as you seem determined to start a game of twenty questions I'll answer what's probably your next one and tell you Siobhan and Declan stayed behind as well. It's only me and Peter that got dragged back."

Gilbert hadn't actually intended on asking after the other two members of Arthur's family –mostly because he'd never quite figured about how they were related to the blond – but was surprised the blond had caught onto his intentions so quickly. He was forced to perform a quick mental scramble for an excuse as to why he was asking after Arthur's family.

Fortunately for Gilbert, who's most plausible excuse would probably have caused Arthur to laugh in face, the blond declined to question as to _why_ Gilbert was being so inquisitive and instead returned the questions.

"How about you and your brother then?"

Gilbert rolled his eyes. "Overbearing, bossy, stick up the arse – nothing new."

"And Ludwig?"

Gilbert was momentarily stumped. The he shoved Arthur into the, fortunately deserted, road.

"Oi! Watch it!" As soon as Arthur got back onto the pavement he retaliated by punching Gilbert in the arm. "Blimey, learn to take a joke!"

Gilbert glowered at the English teen for a few seconds before nearly walking into the park fence. He covered his surprise well and vaulted over the green painted railings as if that had always been his intention and, tossing his rucksack to the ground, threw himself onto one of the swings.

Arthur shot him a slightly scornful look and looped around to enter through the gate. For a few moments they sat in an awkward silence, Gilbert lounging on a swing and Arthur perching primly on the bench opposite him.

"You know you're really overdressed," Gilbert remarked, "I mean I know you never had much fashion sense but tucking your shirt in is really taking it a little _too_ far."

Arthur quirked an eyebrow, a gesture that was hard to miss considering their size, and looked Gilbert up and down. "You've got it backwards. You're underdressed. Or can you just not afford clothes which don't have holes in them?"

"Can you not find a way of obtaining clothes that doesn't involve stealing them out of old people's homes?" Gilbert sniped back.

Arthur rolled his eyes and muttered something that sounded insulting but was too quiet to be heard properly.

For several minutes they sat there in a semi-awkward silence. For all that Gilbert found himself intrigued by Arthur he couldn't think of any real questions to ask him and Arthur, calm and proper and seemingly ignoring him, wasn't exactly a great source of conversation starters.

"Is there a point to this?" Arthur asked finally.

Gilbert gasped, theatrically offended. "You're asking the point of me allowing you to bask dumbstruck in my Awesome?"

"No." Arthur rolled his eyes. "I'm asking why you dragged me all the way out here just to loiter and waste time."

Gilbert was stung. "Well since you're clearly incapable of coping with the awesomeness you can just go! You're dismissed."

He hadn't actually thought that Arthur would listen but at the same time he wasn't all the surprised when the blond walked off. Clearly he needed a plan B.

**_A/N – Sorry for the fail/late/filler chapter. I've been away and busy and this chapter just wouldn't come out right. Thank you for your patience._**


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